In which I will be keeping track (for my own benefit) of my daily progress in the identification of the ant fauna of Tiputini Biodiversity Station in Ecuador, the analysis of that data, and the pursuit of my PhD. And (for the benefit of everyone else) I hope to provide helpful information on ants, taxonomy, database management, identification, and other assorted endeavors. Cheers

Saturday, July 01, 2006

So, I sent a couple of copies of my ant poster to Kelly Swing, who is the director of Tiputini Biodiversity Station, and a super good guy, and he emailed me back asking for a list of what species the ants were. Fabulous idea. I was meaning to create a list but of course was sidetracked. But here it finally is. I put a link to it on my research page, and also a link from the store, but if there is anyone out there who has already bought the poster, I don't really have any way of contacting you, so I hope you find your way to one of these links so you can get the list. Anyway, if anyone is interested, here is the list in alphabetical order (the PDF has the names in the order they appear on the poster):

Acanthoponera peruviana

Amblyopone undetermined

Anochetus diegensis

Basiceros militaris

Camponotus atriceps

Camponotus claviscapus

Camponotus rapax

Cephalotes atratus

Cephalotes laminatus

Discothyrea sexarticulata

Dolichoderus attelaboides

Dolichoderus imitator

Dolichoderus lamellosus

Dolichoderus lutosus

Dolichoderus shattucki

Dolichoderus varians (queen)

Eciton hamatum

Eciton vagans

Ectatomma edentatum

Gnamptogenys bisulca

Gnamptogenys concinna

Labidus coecus

Labidus spininodis

Lachnomyrmex scrobiculatus (queen)

Megalomyrmex balzani

Megalomyrmex silvestrii

Neivamyrmex punctaticeps

Odontomachus biumbonatus

Odontomachus hastatus

Pachycondyla constricta

Pachycondyla laevigata

Pachycondyla obscuricornis

Paraponera clavata

Platythyrea angusta

Procryptocerus impressus

Pseudomyrmex tenuis

Rhopalothrix new species (queen)

Stegomyrmex manni

Thaumatomyrmex undetermined

I am pretty proud that I have species names on almost all of the pictures. The only ones I don't have species names for are the Rhopalothrix, the Thaumatomyrmex, and the Amblyopone. The Rhopalothrix I am sure is a new species (check out the weird mandibular plate -- or whatever it is). The Thaumatomyrmex may or may not be a new species. Or it might just be T atrox, due to the presence of the small basal tooth on the mandible. The genus apparently needs some revision work (see discussion from Ants of Costa Rica), so for now I have labelled it undetermined and have given it to Stefan at the MCZ, who will, one day, do something useful with it. The Amblyopone, too, may or may not be a new species. When I first keyed it out I was pretty sure it was a new species. However, I then came across a description of A. cleae which sounded close to my specimen (although the description was in French, so it was a little hard for me to figure out). I then emailed a photo of my ant to the authors of the paper asking what they thought. Sébastien Lacau sent back a very nice email saying it looked like A. cleae but he obviously couldn't say for sure from a photo. He even offered to send me some samples to compare to mine, but then for some reason he stopped answering emails. So then I sent my specimen to Brian Fisher, who said he would take a look at it but has not had the time yet, so for now, it is undetermined.